[Music] that's my joy to be able to take these small moments that we all find ourselves in and make it be something that you felt like how did you know me in that moment in my life when I was curled in that corner how did you know that's how I felt cuz I felt like that too and that's why I know all the greatest songwriters do cuz how they feel it's got to be how we feel right it's all Universal feeling and that's why we're meeting in this
studio with the great Alicia Keys to talk about something that was released 20 years ago and Still Remains true to us all the Diary of Alicia Keys a very important album not just one of her most personal but also the followup to her
breakout multi-million selling debut album and firmly establishing the Alicia Keys era that we've been in ever since so here we are always an incredible person to talk about music and life with I'm super happy to share this one with
with you it's myself and Alicia Keys flicking through the pages once again of her [Music] diary B baby baby sing s okay it's too early I'm not ready what's up [Music] here go your favorite part know what he's doing to
me hang on a minute my cell phone's on breaking up I can't I can't that's your favorite part I got that part I got that part what's going on you remember we were here last time I know it was so good actually it was but I think you was
sitting there and I was sitting way over there that was so annoying weird right I was like why I'm here now you get to be all closed in a Sanctum you get to be in the vibe let me tell everybody who's watching this right now and you should be watching this right now cuz you want to get the full scope of what I'm about to say if you're listening to it right no one dresses a set like a leash of keys my gosh no actually to be honest
you know this is this is uh my longtime engineer and also business partner and musical partner Ann melli leg every time we go into any Studio anywhere we could be in Germany we can be in London we could be in you know La we could be in Alabama wherever we might be yeah she always makes the space so so so special and and and it makes a difference for how the songs come out she loves Christmas lights I'm surprised we don't
have Christmas lights up candles it's all about the vibe look at this it's beautiful feeling perfect but it's it's probably where you're most connected to yourself in a strange way and I know that I say that as a parent I say that
as someone who's in an amazing loving relationship yourself so we give everything to that but this is this this is kind of where you get to really like let it all come out and so why wouldn't you make it as comfortable and as
enjoyable I don't know why people put themselves in these brick Laden dark rooms till 6:00 in the morning every night I'm like why wouldn't you do it somewhere sick and really nice and Vibe you yeah I mean you know but studios are
kind of built to be dark and dismal a little bit which which is kind of counterproductive our studio in New York has all the light coming in gorgeous it's just different cuz you feel different in the day than you feel at
night so it's special it's really a it's a gift it's an honor to be able to be like you know able to tune into the music and and yourself cuz I think you're right that's exactly what you're saying you don't get a chance to tune to
yourself and so music is therapy for so much so many of us it's the most beautiful selfish thing you can do it's incredible selfish and selfless and equal measure it really is it really is balance this is this is more than just a
a chance for for you and an to build something new and special here this is also a reunion of sorts because um this is larabe again this is where we spoke last time Manny spot Manny makes this whole record and so many of my records yeah yeah yeah you've really collected some incredible friends and creative allies along the way that's true you know it's your name on the records and rightfully so but I want to start this amazing opportunity
to reflect and respect a beautiful body of work by just talking about companionship and talking about like what that's meant to you throughout the years to be able to to not just work with great people but continue to work with those people and to build proper friendships and proper Rock Solid foundations you know yeah I think you're right I mean I'm reflecting back to the Diary of Alicia Keys I'm reflecting back to this being you know my second
offering to the world and um and I mean there was so much that changed for me there was so much that that was different than it had ever been before in my life you know obviously a a girl born and raised in Hell's Kitchen
in Harlem never had traveled like that I mean who you don't travel like that where do you go you go to Jersey maybe you go to maybe you going to get to Connecticut there's not really a ton of places that I was that I had gone at the
time but thanks to the songs in a minor I traveled the whole world and so here I was kind of coming back I remember things like washing my dishes doing my laundry that's a stretch for 20-year-old by the way I mean it doesn't matter whether you've traveled all around the world no 20-year-olds were rushing in to do their dishes and do their laundry but at that point in my life I really wanted to do my dishes and I really wanted to
do my laundry and I really wanted to shop for food like there was something that was really just very plain and everyday about it that I really needed to reconnect to it was imperative that I did that and I remember feeling like
that when I came back from everything that happened with songs in a minor I was I was fascinating I was distorted I was it was unbelievable but at the same time I I was like who Am I who are you very few people ask that question that
early in the journey a lot of times that kind of concept that term that gets thrown around with early early success at a point where your identity is not developed it creates a form of arrest of development and you just rejected that
outright like you came back home and were like that's not where I want to be it's not that I didn't want to be there let me be honest I definitely was grateful that I was in a place where people recognized the music and we
celebrating it and was coming to all the shows and you know the Grammys and all the big things that happened but I just really wanted to be back in touch with like I wanted to get back grounded and I remember feeling like right away that I wanted to be grounded yeah I can tell because according to the research I've done on the record the first song that you kind of started to work on ended up being the official last song on the
record before streets right oh is that nobody not really think so and what's interesting about that if that's the case if your memory is the same as everyone else's that is a song that questions the validity of your opinion
and questions like even if it's not from the first person point of view conceptually it's dealing with the idea of it's kind of okay if nobody's really listening to what I'm saying I'm sort of figuring it out for myself it's kind of
a sad place to be after so many millions of records sold and gramm's won on your debut album It's kind of sobering to hear you start there m I remember that moment like so vividly and um I was coming from whatever airport cuz I was coming from
whatever airport getting into whatever car and there was a a boy a boy I mean and he was selling candy and I was like yeah I'll buy the candy you know what I mean and he was asking me if I would buy some candy and
he was saying that it was for um his school or for his basketball team or or something like that and then I was like yeah I you know I'll buy the candy for you and I started asking him about himself what's your name where you from where did you grow up and I just asked him all these questions and you know his energy and his Vibe at the time I wonder if he remembers this the way that I remember this um but his energy and a
Vibe at the time I could tell that you know things weren't the easiest for him and he had been through a lot and and I also remember just feeling like who was asking him anything about his life who was asking him what he had experienced or caring about what he might be losing sleep over or scared about or anything like that and and and I remember leaving that moment with that young man and that's what made me write nobody not
really and it was the the first line is who really cares when I talk what I think what I feel nobody not really and that was just what I felt and even for myself you know people care about what what benefits them but a lot of times
people aren't really actually interested in what you're really going through it's a very powerful observation and an incredible song to start a new Journey with um yeah reflective at a time when everyone was probably still toasting
your success you know funny thing I mean I think at the time too like first of all we were all so shocked about everything that I think in a lot of ways everyone except Clyde was always knew was really shocked at at the no but
Clive does no listen I learned a lot from him I've learned a lot from him and I really appreciate you know he he said to me one time he interviewed me and he said to me that he always approaches everything with how can I he's talking
how can I ensure the win he's making sure that everything he puts his hand on is going to win I don't think there's anyone in the music business that has such a legacy of instinct and diligence and perfect measure someone who understands what some when something moves him to the point where he has to act on it no question but then doesn't leave it there puts everything into the work every single thing he's not he's going to make
sure every dot is everyone is dot every te is C he's going to make sure that every and I learned a lot from when he said that because I think a lot of the times as a human definitely as an artist you know a lot of times you we are just
reacting to what's happening to us as opposed to ensuring that whatever is coming our way is by Design and it's hard to learn how to do that yeah and so that was a big thing for me but we were at the time we were so shocked that I
don't even feel like we celebrated like that I remember after the Grammys that first Grammys I remember we all just went home I remember I sat in my hotel room I was just like because it just felt like that what are you supposed to do what kind of that's probably the appropriate reaction actually and not one that many people go through most people are out there should have trying to stay hi in in the moment and live in the thrash but it's kind of
cool I think to be able to go back to a a slightly confined space and just sit in your thoughts for a minute because you know the next day you got songs to write it's shocking it's literally shocking so I don't know that we celebrated as much as maybe we should have even cuz I think I learned how to celebrate myself more way later way later I started to celebrate and that was more the swis Swiss taught me that he definitely taught me that but you
know he's right you do have to have take a moment to give thanks and and be grateful and and and enjoy you know the times that you have to enjoy it's it's it's rare that you get those moments so how could you have done that when you
were going through such an incredible sort of riding tear at that moment and you've been through this your entire career found new inspiration gone down New Roads such an Adaptive and Incredibly malleable experience you've
given us as fans like all over the show but in that particular time frame on those two records it was like right New York hip hop Soul right training right so you know like just high level vocal performances all feeling like all feeling these were Blockbuster albums looking back on it now Concepts Big Ideas big ambition crazy crazy no it's crazy I'm I'm I mean cele impressed with yourself I'm shocked I'm I'm I'm it's kind of unbelievable a little
bit it's kind of unbelievable so why because I know I know how um I just know how rare it is and it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter doesn't matter it's like certain things that happens and certain things
that just don't happen and that's not your fault it's not whoever is helping you fault you know sometimes it is yeah let's be let's be clear let's be clear but most of the time is kind of just how everything flows so I you said that it's
flow it's Flow State and that's what I hear in those first albums it's interesting you are showing different sides of yourself despite the fact that I do consider those first two albums to be companions to some degree as a
listener as a fan the first one you're very much on the cover presenting yourself in a way of saying I've arrived on diary you are almost hiding behind the music right just kind of revealing yourself ever so gently as if to say I'm
here but you got to notice me first you know what I mean it's really interesting the development there and I I learn your thoughts on that looking back on the difference between the two in terms of presentation man so much was different between that first one and that second one between songs in a minor and diary rela Keys um the second one I was just starting to discover who else I could be beyond what I thought that I already
was and I wasn't ready to really be fully that person because it was new you know if you even notice down to the details it was the first time the songs that ain't Min my hair was all braided and in a diary my hair was half braided and that again that was just me even first exp experimenting with like what does it feel like when I changed this you know people knew me so specifically for a corn like it was a big big thing I spent
hours and hours in my day braiding my hair it was like a special ritual you know what I mean to become who I already was but like this this kind of presented version of myself and and so then I started to undo that and so and then a
lot of ways I was undoing what I thought that I was and discovering who I was becoming that's really freeing and you can hear it in the music you can hear it um right down at the beginning you know um how's nocturnal like the way that
you's nocturn the way that you come come out and you open the album with that and it just it feels like such a a hybrid of of Inspirations and influences and and feelings and music that is I know it's sort of considered a little bit of an intro but to me it's more like the blueprint of the record I think that all of you know the classical piano has been such a big part of my learning and just education of the keys and just sonically
and and and discovering what that is and then to your point mixing that with New York mixing that with hip-hop mixing that with energy and just all who we're going to get started Drop It Like It's just so it's perfect but it's interesting when you
know you hear classical music and and hear the training as I said before put into that kind of environment you realize oh it was worth it but when you're a kid all of that I mean there's a pain in the air there's no two ways
around it right is I know I feel you know it is but you know there was also like yes the the action of practice this practicing anything a practice that you're dedicating yourself to and having to be dedicated to in order to find momentum and is definitely highs and lows you have the joy of accomplishing something that you never thought you could at the beginning the beginning when I would open these pieces or try to
play them I was so scared of them I was terrified of them you got to see the black and white notes on the page and they look endless there's 16 18 25 pages of music music that you're needing to get through in order to complete this
entire Suite or this Opus or whatever it might be or these movements and at first I'd be terrified but as you find yourself pushing yourself through one measure at a time I'm going to learn these two measures and I'm going to
learn these next two measures and then put them together I've never asked you this before but seeing is how we we're getting to the point of diary um which is such an important album we're celebrating this now 20 years on are you
any closer now that you you've sort of made so much music and continue to evolve what was really pushing you cuz parents can't really get you over the line they can encourage you but you can turn your back on whatever you choose
turn your back on as a kid right why did you not why would why did you stick it out I think you know I think that I started to find myself in a relationship with it with the piano that gave me a sense of definitely gave me a sense of freedom but it also gave me a sense of autonomy and I think something about being in control of what was coming out of this space in my life felt different than any other space in my life I think every
other space felt quite you know oppressed or guided or needing to be you know you have to you're expected to do whatever you're expected to do and then you look out your front door and it's out of control I mean New York is
just out of control yeah I mean it's chaos it's ultimate chaos so to be able to be in this safe space where it was like this was mine I could do whatever I could possibly do with it it would lead me to places that I found that that felt
really really good and I think that was the reason why I never stopped it even though surely I got times where I was frustrated especially in the younger years you get so frustrated and you feel like you can't do it and you really just want to play yeah like outside you don't want to be in here you want until you get to make Karma until you get to say you know that Brams that I spent so long studying it sounds good over that
yes it does and that was what was crazy about when I first heard that I remember thinking okay like I've heard people dabbling in classical space before but it almost felt like it was a unique or a novelty or something that that you were
doing cuz it hadn't been done res it sounded like you were doing it cuz you knew it and you knew it would work rather than will it work and Big Love The crucial on that because I remember us kind of um you know at at that time
with sons of a minor and D Revelation Cas crucial was my main partner production and and writing wise and I remember he was really dabbling he knew how much I love classical and he was really dabbling in a lot of classical samples and he would kind of pull these things out that I'd be like yo we have to you know and then the another co-writer on the song Tanisha Smith who's one of the the you know one of my closest dearest friends since I was a
kid you know just all of us being able to be in that torrential storm of Sonic and sound and being like it just it's it's beautiful when that happens but that's right and that because that's my Foundation that classical Foundation it really just it's natural for me it was a game changer it it felt completely authentic and and it felt like the right the right combination of things I think about the collaborators on the record
and how you know everybody in their own way was was kind of at their first real sort of pick you had what crucial was doing with you and this beautiful relationship you guys were fostering creatively and then you had easy mobile
Legend icon you was sort of capturing Tony Tony Tony before just as just on the edge but then you had like Timberland I mean 2003 was a crazy year I feel like I feel like it was a it was a gamechanging year for radio and in
particular hip hop and that's right wow you would probably know that way better than me even but I do think that was a special it did feel like there was such a unique blend of Sonic um you know places to pull from and it felt
like things were so different and diverse you could hear so many different styles of music anywhere you turned I think that was what made it so so so special I mean even just thinking of like the W tangs and people like that in
my life that really were taking these these incredible songs from the 60s but they sounded nothing like it when you listen to a wuang record youen what rard did you would hear the wuang record first inevitably and it would sound
like crime stra straight criminal activity right then you would go and find the sample and it would sound like love right you're like what you're like this is a love song how how did you do that how did you get that's that ASR 10
action yeah I remember being deconstructing and dirtying that and also the the the the choice of Loops m like the way that it was just like taking that one tiny little minor transition of that soul song and making that the and if you let it go it's like oh We're Off to the Races we didn't even get to the race course facts and so coming back to easy Mo B was really a special you know if I Was Your Woman the song was If I Was Your
Woman which um was really fascinating because my love for glad is night had been developing you know over so many years just because she's such a such a legendary gorgeous voice and creative but also because um you know that mixture between that and like coming back to the world of Biggie yeah was something that I was messing with for quite a long time trying to really figure out how to pull that all together I remember the first time that I met
Dwayne Wiggins in Oakland M I was sitting here trying to figure out this like If I Was Your Woman thing and so to be able to have e moob come to the studio mind you we were at this studio called Campo it was I did not know that one and I thought I knew almost every New York Studio between 1990 and 2004 from the back of the records I don't even know what this what is this studio it was downtown Manhattan right and it was like
one its own little building on Bond Street and we ended up in this space because it had the studio and then it also had like a place to sleep upstairs so we could actually kind of just stay and be in this world and you know
everybody was very very eager for me to get to the second record as you can imagine yeah and I really tried to block that out of my head and I think they did a good job trying not to make me feel as pressured as I'm sure they felt knowing
that time was of the essence and it was time to kind of keep going off of the heels of songs in a minor but I just but we just wanted to be like locked in and when easy easy Mo came to me it was like meeting a piece of my most important hory your hisory yeah yeah knowing that I never would meet biggie you know I would I never met Biggie and and I would never meet him but through easy Mo you know I did and then Crossing
this kind of world of gladus night meets you know my where I grew up you know brought us to those drums those easy Mo drums isn't it light get bmer down biggy's hallway I know that's the premiere beat get get out of your pocket I was
your and you were my you no other woman you be weak as a l [Music] I mean what a dream situation for you to be in the studio and hear this music that inspired you from this icon who's sadly no longer around being embellished
through your experience like that's just incredible that was that was genuinely crazy I mean that hearing it broken down like that on my NPC which I've always used the program does take me back to a really like Elemental moment cuz I just remember feeling so it was all happening like the vision that I had always had for it was coming together in a way that I could have never imagined it but it was Finding its way and when you find
the right you know collection of energy in one room it really does make magic it really does you you know you continued in the tradition of I think what what made biggie so compelling to so many music fans um was that he would take
some of the darkest things and make them sound like nursery rhymes and make some of the lightest things and make them sound like the toughest you've ever heard and that contrast was what was really like wow you were drawn into that
and I think you know like we all know what the warning is we all know what it stands for it's a very heavy piece of art it's it's a movie like a very serious film why wouldn't you embellish that and put some something that's deep
and Soulful over the top of it you know what I mean like that contrast is kind of that's all over this album that's what I love about it me too me too and that does really reflect just all The Inspirations that's in my bones you know
and so I love it this one is a really good example of it is one of my favorites that's that was so big love easy Mo be man well you had to love it cuz it was a slasher you should you could have just stuck with the original
but you had here slash this it's this slash this yeah oh yeah when you have this is what happens when publishing right this is when publishing steps in this is the stuff no one ever talks about it's real exciting right this part
of it but point is you want to recognize both sides of course you have to equally so it's really fresh important I want to talk about heartburn because Timberland you know you and Timberland to work together um I you'd have to refresh my memory on how how many times you've actually collaborated with Timlin throughout your life I cannot believe this but I've really only made one record with timolin that's what I thought that's why I wanted you to
confirm that and it is heartburn crazy which we really need to correct that at any point we need to correct that ASAP but heartburn was is such a special like energy it really does capture the soulfulness of Timberland I mean I love
I I've always loved timberin songs and I think that there's such a frenetic energy that he captures in even the most Soulful ways it just doesn't make sense today yeah Swiss will be on the phone with Tim and be like yo listen to this
and Tim will be in the studio doing something crazy yeah he's an inventor today he's a Sonic inventor it's crazy and that's what's called about heartburn is that I feel like he parked some of that desire to break and distort and
transform and advance and everything else and moved in a more Timeless space with you on this song like it doesn't scream Timbo trying to impr trying to impress his ability on people right here do you know what I fair fair I think
that's a good point and I think just just being in that space with him and being able to create and taking that moment it was so simple mhm it was that was just good buckles it was just it it was just there's something that's so direct and strong but also really you know fresh about it with all this attitude in it and and really the complexity was more kind of the way that I was delivering the vocals and that was what felt fun it
was that that real Soulful energy but yet the the talking the kind of like one two three just all of the fres off T Meats but also Fresh Off tour Fresh Off what are you going to do with all that energy right when you come off tour it's
like you're not going to do 18 takes right you're going to do one take you need it it it was it was amazing um it amazing I mean the diary album really I had a long I spent a lot of time in Campo creating the Crux of it
um but when it when it came time for us to start to when I started to get the Got lyrics you need to be done with this record I was like but I'm not finished you're finished because we need to go yeah it became actually one of my most difficult records ever to create because I had to finish it while we were um promoting it and it was really oh my days that's right I forgot about that you were they had you out there setting
it up and it wasn't even knocked down yet it wasn't fully the the body of it was definitely there but to finish a record is an orthodox oh it was so bad I remember just being so measurable I was miserable they should have keep you up
at night it was terrifying which is the point by the way they would you up all night every night it's done I can't sleep good get to the studio finish this for sure that energy as I said coming off the road and and realizing that you
wanted to keep the momentum moving but do something different do something more personal which why it's such an important album The Diary it could be more personal it led to vocal performances that to me really established from a fan point of view what we wanted from you which was feeling and I love how in this album you are stretching even yourself and you have an immense vocal ability but I can see that you're striving to reach the
notes because the feeling is just Out Of Reach and and I want it I want to get it does that make sense that makes perfect sense I mean I definitely was not I definitely saw my own growth between songs in a minor and diary vocally like
vocally because I was the first time that I was toured so extensively and the first time that I was able to really understand what it takes you know probably the first time I was able to watch myself and say ooh H we got to be
tighter with this or better with that or you know you don't get to see that if you've never done it before and so I really grew a lot from that experience and I saw myself really growing and part of what I think is one of my own writer techniques is that the song is always going to be a little bit Out Of Reach yeah that's what I love about it it has to be if it if it's if I don't have to reach to go find it then it's not going
to give that you're not going to mean it you're not going to mean it oh I'm a die trying it's the great quote I love that quote I mean it's a great quote it's it's like uh and that's what I love about it and I don't think you couldn't
have put diary on your first di you couldn't have gone back and forth like that the end of that song the center of that record the end of side one right really important moment where it's like you're trading you're trading emotion
right right particularly with the diary record which is one of my favorites and that song yeah yeah piano is not one but it wants to [Music] be it's that ballet it's just the sound when it rings out it's just so warm I feel like um that's one of the I'm just going to say that to me is one of the warmest most inviting sounding instruments ever created it's amazing uh you know a worldly [Music] ah and then you have all the tremal
[Music] yeah oh I found it this is why they what's beautiful as well is that the notes are informing the tone and the feeling but the feeling is what's writing the song do you know what I mean like if you'd written that on the Pano it would still
sound beautiful but it wouldn't have turned into it just it wouldn't become what it become it's like we get obsessed with the notes of these things but right that's what's going on left right in between right it
really is and diary was like an anomaly it was it was definitely writing itself on the songs na a minor tour and I would sit down every day and I would be like and I knew to it it came naturally [Music] and I couldn't write it for the whole time I couldn't write it the the the the cores were there and I knew they were so beautiful but I didn't know what they wanted to say yeah yeah what did they tell you as a writer at the time cuz it
must have been frustrating at that early stage of your development that you could have just conjure something right I was like why can't I hear this I I can't hear it but it kept wanting me to play it it kept want me to play it and it had to be a year yeah had to be a year later that I finally wrote the wrote the lyrics for it it took so long but I thought that was beautiful cuz you know eventually you're going to find your way
to what you're supposed to find your way to even if it's not immediate it's the identity of the album It's the end of side one great it holds the most important part of any record on vinal History the end of side one the end why
am I going to turn it over gu you inside one really well facts right I'm not turning it over moving on to the next record but let's just sing this one real quick cuz this is important so when I finally got to the lyrics lay [Music]
pillow here you can be [Music] yourself no one has to know what you feel [Music] no I'm in you oo I won't tell your secrets your secrets are safe with me I will keep your secret just think of me as the pag in your diary okay so all right so let's just super nerd out on that cuz hearing you play it like that having heard it in the recorded version just really brings me into this into this moment this question which is did that all flow real quick
after a year did it did it come when when it came did it come almost everything came except EX everything came everything I just saying came really quickly except just think of me as the pages in your except wow line except the hook when you came up with that line that must have been like a all right it was so rewarding I was like finally I've been searching for it for so long did you know then that was the identity of the album when that line
came to you you know I didn't name this album until the very very end of the whole process interesting usually don't end my um name them until the end you you wouldn't mistake me for thinking or any of us for thinking it was border line concept record correct correct I mean it def I definitely knew that because I had written all the things and I knew what it felt like and the process felt like I knew there was this diary
element to it after I had been able to experience it but it wasn't that that was something that fed the songs it kind of came from the song You're an albums artist you're a career artist you're a songwriting supreme but um you've also
got hits you got to have hits in C Davis School got to have the hits you know the album needed some moments that gave the entire body of work those just little shining gems right those things and um the one that has been a really
career defining moment for you is not only so out of the box at the time right in terms of who Kanye West was at the time right but also is the weirdest starting hit record of that era facts it's just like out of nowhere it's
almost like it's almost like he forgot to hit record which is so hum and so and is most genius yo I mean you know thinking back to you don't know my name it's amazing it's crazy this record and I love this song so much and I love how
people have loved this song so much even to the point where you know all over Tik Tok you'll see people reenacting the entire Talking part of the record um it's it's incredible um but working with you know working with Kanye at that time you know he was he was a baby like we were both definitely babies I'm still a [Laughter] baby exactly but at that moment like we just were just all passion and all all love and and um it was so cool to be able to
experience that moment where we were both just finding out who we were and so you don't know my name which definitely was was that Vibe I'll never forget that day in the studio with him um you know that was the first time I I brought Harold Lily Harold Lily is a one of the songwriters that's written a number of amazing songs with me but you don't know my name was really like m one of our first ones yay brought um John Legend
who at the time I was like wait what's his name yeah and he was like John Legend and I was like he's really naming himself John Legend for real he was on backgrounds of you don't know my name along with Herold Lily they sang the
backgrounds obviously that was a moment sample so there was some of the moments was on that you know the the the vocals were on there too but I'll never forget how it just flowed and obviously main ingredient the main ingredient
just it's so funny because that sound now has become so synonymous I think over a certain era of Kanye's work right the backpack era right the college era right that sense of just like you know wel up to my Mama D is like telling stories just got involved with this you know amazing time in music amazing time in his career but this is early doors okay did you know by the way that Alicia Keys is an award-winning record
producer and an NPC Beast anybody in case you didn't know that by the way in case you didn't know that the biggest song on that album she wrote and produced in its entirety and we'll get to that next but getting back to this
one and um just that moment of like it wasn't I Knew You Love sample culture and you could tell Hip Hop was a huge part of your foundation and what you were inspired by and wanted to bring into your music but even correct me if
I'm wrong I felt like this at the time was a wholesale change like this is a sample this is a fullblown sample main ingredient the vibe was incredible I think what happened was when he played me this idea it was like for the first time I really
felt like I could fit inside of that I could understand the way and I remember it was right away baby baby bab it just came right right away there was nothing else to do about it baby baby baby from the day I saw you really
really want to catch your eye something special about you and I'm must really like you it's not a lot of guys don't wor my turn and I remember that when we did the whole Talking part that we were just talking about uh we did the basis of that and we did the basis of that at one studio and we started it we had all the backgrounds we really had a it was magic I remember being in that room and it was just like you couldn't believe that this
thing was happening in that room at that moment you felt it like how I must imagine certain records feel like I feel like when when Biggie came up with war and they was in the room like I feel like when Diana Ross came up with I'm
coming out they was been doing this for 30 years and it's probably the the it's the it's the rarest but most special constant and it never goes away that there is are records that artists who make music for long enough make that
just arrive and that is Magic it is there's no other description for it but something's going on and it's just magic it just wants to be made it was that and everything was in the right moment and everything was in the right energy and we had that Basics and when yay and I got back together we got back together in Campo that place where I told you we camped out in Camp and that was the moment where he was like you know what I mean what we need
to do is like one of them things like on those 6s records but where they just start talking you know when they start talking and they just be like hey how you doing and he like over there on the chair being like hey how you doing I was just and and maybe we need to like maybe you need to be like be somewhere like where would you be I was like I don't know maybe we're meeting and like I don't know is he like am is he ordering
something is he getting we're sitting here brainstorming the whole thing and when I go into the booth to try to drop this to try to figure out what we're going to say I'm partially nervous cuz I'm like of course I'm this
whole thing up what am I supposed to say who is Michael what we do it's so vicarious listening into it it's on the line of almost you are drawn into it like is this going to work out like it's totally it's it's it's crazy the effect
that that has on it it it breaks the spell of the song in the best way it's crazy and whose idea was it to actually I joked about when we walked in but when the phone I mean cuz the thing is you don't get your answer and then I'm sorry
wait my phone bre phone broke up that was definitely kind he wait the phone the phone got to break up it was amazing and then just to kind of go through that whole thing and bring it back and really create this whole tapestry of a song and
a moment and you could create your own movie in your mind about what it looked like was really incredible I alluded to a song before that I think is is the songwriting High Mark of this album which is If I Ain't Got You which to me is like um I think I I think I think that that's that's the signal of as I am like that's what's going to happen right like that's what's going to happen like like I'm going to make this song and then that's
going to show you where this is going to go I just want your thoughts on that particular song because I feel like as the producer in the soul writer on it it probably means more to you than it even does to the fans and it means a lot to us I actually can't even believe that song like at all not any moment of any day does that song not hit me in the gut in the belly as if the world champion knocked me out I mean I feel the same
way about the song today that I felt the minute that I wrote it and it was such a such an interesting accumulation of moments because I definitely remember the loss of Aaliyah being a big um charge as to where those lyrics came
from and I remember that the first time that they hit me those lyrics the beginning of those lyrics I was on a plane and obviously knowing that she you know had been on a plane as well there was something about that that felt
really like you really instantly knew just some things matter and some things just don't I remember feeling like so connected to that thought of like what is it everything means nothing like what does it matter if you don't have certain
things that really matter yeah so that was kind of the beginning of the Genesis of the song and and I remember Just Landing that plane and we were in some small town in some small City and I just had my keyboard and I was always carry
my keyboard with me everywhere and that keyboard ended up in that piano room and in that piano room was where those CH started and that was kind of what and it just it was one of those songs unlike diary that just like and it all just happened it happened right there there in that hotel room in that moment the song was written how do you I mean you must feel emotional in a way when that happens because something speaking through you
then suddenly exists and you know it's yours to ship it into the world and to give life to and it exists now there's no you're never going to lose it never going to lose it it's here now and you realize this is you're going to have a relationship with the song for the rest of your life and it was crazy cuz I would play it I would play a it had shows one show I said I wrote a new song you know I would love to sing it for y'all and I
sang A got you before it was even recorded and you could tell that people instantly understood it in a really like visceral visceral way and that was when I knew like whoa even though I felt like that that's a jazz preparations straight
up sh who truly cares for me some people want it all but I don't want nothing at all if it ain't you baby If I Ain't Got You Baby some people want diamond rings some just want everything but everything means nothing if I ain't got
you yeah you know I got to give you mad props as well for straining yourself from the What would have been the clearest key change in music history you so could have gone up one or two there could have gone up no way are you kidding me no there's no higher to go on this but the crazy part is the video I think the video for me for this song is one of my favorites uh Diane Martel directed this video and to have metha man in this
video which is like a big special moment because I'm such a big fan of his work and I mean it was like great T great time for rappers on screen that album between most diff and my man everyone's getting work but it was perfect must be like
what's up you're not going to call me like like what the hell what's good I just a Janet exactly ex but man and just that story line that whole story line of realiz you know just like what is really important it came
through in a way that I think um was unexpected actually with that song I think the fact that we took such a such a street version of what that meant for for for me how I grew up made it just that much different you know and that
much more special and unique so I I really love working with Diane Martel she's a very special special director artist you know the album isn't just a personal diary it's it's in terms of what you're going through but you know
no is complete unless you're observing things going on outside of your own room as you pull the curtains back and take a look at what how the world's affecting you there's a lot of that going on um right I think about wake up being a classic example of that me too you know when you released Songs in a minor it was the summer of 2001 and then everything changed right and so when you come back in 2003 at that point trying to do the math
you're probably 22 at that point nearly 22 Yeah I was 22 yep you know who are you to write about the world at that moment in time and where do you find the courage to do it and yet you did that song to me has two different narratives going on but both of them are about taking action M I love this song wake up it's one of my actual favorite songs on the diary album it's really special I thought that when I was writing it I was
really writing it about like from the lens of love from the lens of two people but ultimately it really was about all of us [Music] um and I wanted to to mat yeah when you when you're going to wake up baby it's time for love it when you
going to wake up my baby my wake up my baby before it's too late oh baby where did we go wrong baby uhhuh did this coldo world turn Us in stone well now all I battle is your ego and your pride it's taking like a t bom ready to
ignite H me to fight so who's going to rescue us from ourselves when we going to wake up baby it's time for love it when we going to wake up my baby before it's too late yeah listen it's it's very clear as I said beautiful thank you um that you have these two wonderful conversations going on simultaneously but you know the relationship could easily be about two people who should be able to sort their out but it strugg me to communicate
but some of the language in their like Ally and you know some of the connections you make feel bigger than two people it's definitely bigger than two people and and ultimately whether it's two people or many you know the point is
is when are we going to wake up when are we going to see that it really is the only thing is love like and I know it sounds like I don't know maybe people have heard that and it feels like it's not real no we haven't heard it that's
the point if we heard it we'd be doing it I hope I I I would I would you know it's like oh I know we've heard that all before sure but we're not acting on it so just keep saying it like the only thing that matters is love and if we could actually just wake up and look at each other like someone we loved because there is someone that you love everybody has someone that you love they have someone they don't want to lose and if
we could look at everybody like someone that we loved then we would wake up and we would see that it's time it's time for love and that's all there's time for there's really not time for anything else not time it goes by real fast it goes by really fast I mean we're both parents you know how quickly time goes when you have kids it's like it's just it's just time is time is fleeting and I wish we would music really helps it does help it does heal
it heals us and it heals you I think of of a song like Samsonite man such a such a cool concept for a heavy record s I was crazy I mean for those people that don't know um the bag never gets unpacked right the bag never gets
unpacked right it's always ready to be checked in to go somewhere else so really cool song title reflecting that hard to write I reckon maybe a relief though maybe maybe a relief to be able to call it something to be able to put it into
words but right that's exactly right pack in his bags got to go got to go in his bag got to go he's the Samsonite man yeah also the way you paint the picture I'm assuming it's about your father yep the way you paint the picture of it's someone that you admire and so does so does other people right I understand the charm is there and I get it right but the it leads to pain yeah I mean ultimately you know it's never just that easy no
relationship is ever just that easy it's not just oh there's this and there's that and it's just black and it's just white and it's that you know it's never so complex and there so many things in between and so I think that in that way being able
to share that metaphor and being able to put that into words at that time 2003 you know 20 22 years old um it was really it was important for me to be able to say that to myself just to be able to understand okay all right well
that's what it feels like that's what it that's what it looks like that's what it feels like to many there's many relationships where you just you know you do feel abandoned you do you do feel like it's something that's not something you could totally depend on what's interesting is I got told once when I was going through this kind of experience trying to figure out how I processed all of that as from my childhood experiences and stuff and I
kept talking about the word abandonment and and someone I know said to me well that children feel abandoned adults feel rejected and so it's like to me when I hear that song I feel like you make the distinction you're like all right cool it's fine you want to go go I get it right I mean now you know I'm happy to say I talk about this a lot that you know the that my father and I really have been able to beautiful ex Express
so many of those things that were that were maybe keeping us apart in the past and so I'm I'm glad that we've been able to to find a place of respect every expression every time that you're able to verbally get off your chest something
you've been holding in there this helps you it helps you be that much clearer it helps you let go a lot of stuff we're holding on to and you know you hold on because you have you don't have an outlet to let it out who's going to
listen to you anyway do they get it do they understand do they no not really nobody not really really so you know if you can let it go for yourself and get it out for yourself it does lead to an opening so but I love that song
metaphorically as a writer you know metaphorically speaking it just felt so like a like a really clear way to express something that wasn't very clear at the time like you said it led to some healing definitely either deliberately
or inadvertently it led to Healing thank you my sweet here there it is it's just here it's waiting it what a beautiful 360° ride through an incredible experience making this album and all that you gave us I mean I know that it afforded you the chance to continue and the success continued and you built on what can be described as um I mean if things come in threes those first three albums I mean like five million five million five million Grammy
Grammy Grammy Grammy Grammy it's just like that 2001 to 20072 2008 period is crazy crazy that would have been enough to secure your star here and your name there and all that stuff would have been cool and we been staring at pictures of you in K's Grammy Museum in Brooklyn going that's Alicia k everybody 2001 to 2008 what a run we're only joking about it cuz it's not true like God has kept going and it continues right th% so you know with all
that being said as we near the end of this putting that success into into a nice little composite yeah um being who you are now with so much more a baby with so much more music to make and so much further down the road than where you were in 2003 right how do you really feel about something I just feel like it's a gift I just feel like it was such a springboard for me as a as a as a woman you know this was like really my first
step into Womanhood sons in a minor was really like the tail end my teenage years and Diary of Alicia Keys was really that first step into like who are you and what do you think and how do you feel and what are you going through and although over the years I definitely got better at even better at explaining it or expressing it or in different ways doing that this was like such a critical time it also showed me the the grit that
I have the tenacity I have the determination that I have to be able to not let things break me down when things get difficult tough hard expectations come and and really holding tight to who I actually am and what's what really
matters for me and if I was to say one of the things I'm most proud of for myself is being able to hold on to that through the years and really being able to be a person that that truly feels grounded truly feels connected to the
world connected to people connected to myself and uh and I've never let that I've never not become myself I've never not become who I am or had to be who I was not surely I had to find how to come back to myself surely but I feel like I was always able to be grounded in the truth and not kind of get lost in the fake and I'm really grateful for that and I think this album was one of the real clear uh heart shares of that emotion and so I
love it I love this record I love celebrating this record I can't believe it it's crazy I love that the is still relevant sounds great it's so relevant F people kick that term career def finding record around all the time
and I think that they would talk about it in terms of success but the way you just summed it up it is a true career defining record because it gave you as you said the blueprint to build your career the right way wow right it's an infrastructure
Creator wow this record man what a great great opportunity to hang out with you and just thank you for the performance for all of us to hear you sing in the room these songs and um I cannot wait what's next so my last question is
what's next oh my gosh there so much next you know I I I I don't know if you heard but I do have a musical that just just dropped and it's called Hell's Kitchen Y and congratulations it's incredible thank you so much it's
something I've been working on for actually 13 years yeah or maybe your whole life definitely been working on it my whole life but in regards to crafting to be able to exist in the world has been over the you know over 10 years and
so to see it finally being in a place where people can relate to it in fact there's there's a gang of new songs in it and there's also some of your favorites and some of these that we talked about from this album actually
play a special part in H's kitchen but you're never going to expect it because you only meet her name is Ally and you only meet her in her 17th year that's when you see her you never see her older you never see her younger and I think it the city and the experience really does pour into her in that time in a way she doesn't even realize she needs so you got to see that I'm super excited about that I'll be sending you some some dates
no I'm going don't worry about me and the family rolling in but you've written the book you've got Alicia you've got keys you've split yourself titled up into two stretch that one out stretch that one out was big by the way and now
you've got uh this this amazing musical going on so I feel like um and we're reflecting on this album and this and this cycle yeah yeah there's so much more to make it really is and you've got this incredible flow I feel to be able
to create what you want when you want how you want to do it so are you waiting for inspiration are you are you waiting are you feeling inspired is it coming do you know there were songs I do oh my gosh there's so many songs I mean
writing writing songs for Hell's Kitchen has been incredible because you you you know you get to take the emotions of the feelings of what's happening in that moment and put it into words that everybody could understand stand in
their life to me that's what music that's my joy to be able to take these small moments that we all find ourselves in and make it be something that you felt like how did you know me in that moment in my life when I was
curled in that corner how did you know that's how I felt cuz I felt like that too and that's why I know so I think that that is incredible and then the next you know flow of music and the next flow of artists that I would love to be
bringing force in the world you know I feel like for the first time I feel like okay I might be ready for that wow I might wow we're going to get the taste era we're going to get like the it's going to be like you're good you're good let's put you with you and that oh that's a problem I feel like there's a lot I feel like there's a lot of great great things and I'm just grateful um to be able to really be clear and be able to have that that pure
heart that can that can do that thanks you're all right with me you're gonna give me some walkoff music walk hold I did wantan to I have to come back to the other part of about [Music] this see now it's a same now it's a musical [Music] jle so much strugle out here and my dream still my rest sleep's the cousin of death oh we feel like a race against father time in the streets of New [Music] [Applause] [Music] York [Music] hey yay too good